QSL card

Between Friday 26th April and Saturday 4th May 2024, along with my friend Kevan 2M0WMG, I was active from the Outer Hebrides (aka the Western Isles), IOTA Ref EU-010. We were mainly active from the islands of Barra, Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist as well as a few smaller tidal islands along the way.

On Sunday 28th April we operated from the island of Fiaray, also spelt Fiaraidh, from the WAB square NF61 which had never previously been activated. On the afternoon of Monday 29th April we operated from the (very wet) NF80 square on Eriskay which had also never been activated.

On 28th and 29th April I operated from the Parks On The Air park of South Uist Machair Scenic Site, POTA reference GB-0973, only the second such activation.

We operated on a variety of modes and bands. I primarily operated on the HF bands using CW, although also made some local QSOs on 2m FM. We were grateful to local hams for giving us advice and a warm welcome. I also made use of GM8SAU’s excellent network of LoRa iGates for APRS tracking. Kevan is a phone op so spent his time on HF SSB. We also attempted to use PSK31 and RTTY but unfortunately the technology would not work. Our antennas were limited to linked dipoles and verticals: this and poor band conditions meant that we were limited in the DX we were able to work. However we made a number of DX QSOs into the Americas and Russia to name but a couple.

While away we posted on our Twitter feed for up to date information. This can still be seen by clicking on: @HebridesDX2024

Kevan has also made a series of videos covering our time away. These can be watched below:

Below you will see a CloudLog map of my contacts over the week. QSO map